Here is a quote from the book, Stimulated!

“When we are most in touch with our creative swing is when we feel that wonderful euphoric sensation associated with being stimulated. These are times when we feel most alive and excited because we are acting and responding in ways that are authentically aligned with our creative selves — our creative genius.” (pg 182, Stimulated, Andrew Pek and Jeannine McGlade)

Tags: Stimulated!, book, Andrew Pek, Jeannie Mcglade

This past Sunday we started a new series - “Baggage”. This is a series other churches have done, so it was not a unique series to Faith Apostolic.  However, as usual the series is localized to fit the local church.

I had the platform covered in different types and sizes of bags.  It looked pretty cool.  I forgot to get a picture, but will this coming weekend.

AM Service

• The message was called, “Baggage – Check It”
• Everyone has baggage, and the key is to figure out what your baggage is and acknowledge it.
• We carry our baggage around
• Three prayers to deal with baggage

• Jesus help me renew my mind with your truth
• Jesus help restore what is lost.
• Jesus help me to release my offender (forgive)

PM Service

• The message was called, “Baggage – The Past”
• Talked about Moses, went through everything that Moses had been through before the burning bush.
• Moses tried to get out of it.
• Moses had some baggage when God told him he was going back to be the leader of the people out of bondage in Egypt.
• When we carry the baggage of the past, we are the same. It is difficult because we hold and carry the past around with us.
• There is some baggage that Faith Apostolic is carrying around from the recent past, that needs to be put down to move forward.
• We need to do some things

• we need to know the truth, we do that by listening to Jesus. Stop listening to the wrong people.
• Learn the lesson. Ask who am I listening to? Did I listen to Jesus? What choices did I have? Did I have the correct attitude?
• Look to the future, look to what lies ahead.

Posting from my Blackberry, so formatting is not the easiest.

We returned from our family trip to Cape Code on the weekend and stayed over in Massena, NY. We brought a couple of our friends children to church, as they were heading to Long Island. Pray for the Hamelin family, one of their sons is sick and needs a healing.

AM Service - There were a couple of guests out, that was great. I spoke in a different fomat for Faith Apostolic in the AM, I incorporated some two-way communication. I introduced the messge with a description of geocaching, detailing all the elements involved in geocaching, and mentioned some of the recent caches we did while in Cape Cod.

Then, I asked how could geocaching relate to our faith journey, what could each element be a type of. This was to spur some interaction, even the guests participated. Then based on the responses I finished my talk.

PM Service - This message was based on Paul & Mars Hill. How to engage culture by finding the spiritual questions that the community around you are asking. Once you understand those questions they are asking then you minister to them based on those questions.

God is already at work in people’s lives before we even get on the scene. That is why we need to understand the cultural environment we are in.

This past weekend we were away in New York and Pennsylvania for BMX Races. There were two races on Saturday and one on Sunday. The results are posted on the Soul BMX Racing website (soulbmxracing.wordpress.com). As mentioned before on this site, Soul BMX Racing is not only going to the track and racing. We also have small group meetings at the track, and I am pursuing some Chaplin training.

This weekend we posted some posters to promote our small goup meeting on Sunday before the races. This is a new thing for us this year in doing these meetings at the track. It is likely a new thing for the local tracks as well. I noticed there were some people reading the flyers that we posted. We did not have any new people that came, but we did have our meeting and the topic was about chasing after the God-ordained opportunities. I related some of the topic to BMX racing, every track is a series of obstacles that a racer must over come to get to the finish line, just as life has different obstacles.

I was talking with a man later on about what we are doing with Soul BMX Racing, he was telling me he thought what we were doing was a good idea. He was also a Christian man and was saying that there was not much at the tracks he had been too. He hadn’t thought too much about the need of a sports chaplin, but after we chatted he said it was a very good idea.

This week I am meeting with Athletes in Action about some partnering opportunities, they are very interested to hear about Soul BMX Racing.

In this post I wrote about a meeting that we had to go to for the adoption process. The meeting on June 12th, 2008. We did not know what this meeting would consist of, so we were a little nervous on the questions that would be asked.

When we got to the Ottawa Children’s Aid Society we were brought into a meeting room with the case worker. The case worker that we had was very friendly and personable. She asked us about ourselves and our three children. She asked why we decided to pursue adoption. So we told her our story. We went through all the forms we filled out and the questionnaire about the profile of the child we would be willing to adopt. She had some questions about some of our replies, and explained some questions we had.

We did talk about one area on the questionaire that caused some concern for CAS. This was in regards to how as parents we have disciplined our children in the past. We discussed this and we answered the questions, listened to her about the CAS viewpoint. We let her know that we have no problem with that, and we mentioned that we wanted to be open and honest with her etc. She was pleased with how we handled this concern and went on to tell us that she was passing us to the next level.

The next level was the homestudy. Once she gets back from vacation, she is going to contact us to come over to our home and start that process.

The next thing we had to do was inform the rest of our family members (parents and siblings) that did not already know. We were not sure how the response would be, but on Father’s Day we let them know and everyone was receptive, and asked us some questions about our decision and then let us know that they were supporting us.

This past Friday most of the references that we had in our application received the letters and questionaires from CAS, and will complete them and send them back to CAS.

Tags: youtube, vote_yes_mmp, elections, Ontario

This evening we had the offer on the house we were wanting to purchase accepted by the seller.  Now we have to firm up the sale of ours, the inspection is scheduled on our house tomorrow.

Once that is completed, we will finish up on our purchase.

Then the logistics. We have a one month earlier closing date on the purchase then the on the sale.  So, we have to work all that, but it does grant us some time to wash and paint the house we are buying.

Getting closer……….

Tags: rockland

In watching some of highlights, and reading some articles about Live 8 this weekend, I have been thinking about the “Power of Influence”. Last post, I posted on Bono’s project DATA, and gave some links to a few articles.

When you look at the influence that Bono has captured or gained in the past few years, this goes beyond his immediate walls of his music fans. Beyond those that have went to U2 concerts, purchased U2 CDs. Bono has the ear of the World’s Most Powerful Leaders. Not only that, but he has the influence to make or begin to make things move, action to take place on world stage, not just a music stage. Check out DATA again and go through the site, you kind of get the magnitude of what Bono has begun to accomplish, far beyond just have the number #1 single for a band, and beyond winning a Grammy award and having mic time to say something political.

Then you look at some of the acts that were part of the Live 8, people for instance of the kind like Green Day, and they perform a song entitled, “American Idiot”. Here is a concert series that is trying to capture of the attention of people to take action, trying to capture of the attention of the G8 leaders, and one of the acts performs a song that is a slam of the the most powerful of the 8. Not a real influential person, or someone that will have influence to grab the ear of Bush. The opposite of what Bono has done.

I use those two quick examples to point out something that we can do as Christians. It all has to do with the power of Influence. The church has the choice to have influence in the world today, with those that we are in connect with, those in our cities and towns, schools and workplaces. The choice is we can take the approach of a “Bono” to capture the ear of thosie we are in contact with, or Green Day where we can just slam those we are trying to reach, and have no influence on them at all. We too need to go beyond the walls of our churches. Not just stand and preach to the choir week after week after week.

We need to break out of the Christian subculture. We need to move beyond our immediate mic time on Sunday morning or Wednesday night Bible studies.

You see with the Bono approach we get a window, a opporunity to influence the actions and responses of those we are trying to reach for the kingdom beyond our immediate church walls. With the Green Day approch, where we berate and putdown, ridicule in our language and actions, well we do not even get them to listen, because we have no created the oppotunities to have the ability to influence them, in affect we lose their ear.

Last night’s message Pastor Jeremy preached a message that talked about the scripture in Matthew 5:13-14 (The Message)

“Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

He talked about getting connected with culture, building bridges to connect with people to help them cross the divide that separates them from the Cross, from Christ Jesus. In doing this we need to do this in a way that we can have influence, we cannot take the approach like Green Day does, and talk down, berate the people we are trying to reach out to with the message. We need to take an approach were we can have the ear of the person we are reaching out to.

Now I know when I used the example of Bono and the G8 leaders, that those of us reading this will not have the ability to have the immediate ear of the G8 leaders. But we do have those around us in our own corridors that we can relate to in a way to get their ear and reach them for the kingdom of God.

I know this thought is not completly explored, but it is something we can think about!

/rj3b out…

Here are some links to visit.

Broken Masterpieces - Bono, Celebrities and Causes

You might have seen the commercial, here is the website for the One Campaign. This is the US site, for Canada go here, to the Make Poverty History Canada site (www.makepovertyhistory.ca)

Both of those sites are from DATA org.

For those of you that might be interested in getting involved, here is the direct link for Christian Action….
http://www.data.org/action/christianaction/

There are some interesting tools and resources that the site has available to download.

Here is an article from that was linked off that site I found interesting, “Bono talks of US Crusade”

Here is an excerpt talking about Bono, “He was personally credited with the dramatic public U-turn on Aids of Jesse Helms. ‘Christ only speaks about judgment once and it’s not about sex but about how we deal with the poor, and I quoted Matthew, ‘I was naked and you clothed me, I was hungry and you fed me.’ Jesse got very emotional, and the next day he brought in the reporters and publicly repented about Aids. I explained to him that Aids was like the leprosy of the New Testament.”

/rj3b out

Here is a reprint from Mark Sanborn, called “Developing Your NTLs (Non-Titled Leaders).

Developing Your NTLs (Non-Titled Leaders)

“The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) met in San Diego this past week and I addressed several hundred of their members on the topic of my next book, “You Don’t Need a Title to be a Leader”. (We want your opinion; see the end of the article for more information.)
One of the points I made is that despite conventional thinking, finding and keeping good employees is not the biggest challenge employers face today. Engaging employees is a bigger challenge. It doesn’t do much good to have great people on your team if they aren’t enthusiastically engaged in what they’re doing for your organization.

I began my presentation by saying, “I can’t tell who the leaders in your organizations are by looking at an org chart…and neither can you.” I explained that titles tell us a little bit about status (although many organizations give better titles to employees in lieu of paying them more; consider the number of V.P.s in many organizations today and you’ll quickly realize that there isn’t always a great deal of status in a title). Titles also suggest position within the organization and the power related to that position. Management is power over people, but leadership is power with people. So a title doesn’t make someone a leader.
Nor does a lack of a title mean someone isn’t a leader. There are many within an organization who exerts tremendous influence who lacks formal position or title. Many of these individuals who choose to influence others and affect change aren’t even interested in attaining a title. They do it simply because they want to make a positive difference.

I’ve come to call these people NTL’s (non-titled leaders). They are known for improving ROI: relationships, outcomes and ideas.

It doesn’t take a title to change a customer’s mind about an organization. I’ve been ignored by management only to find a committed employee who was able to fix a problem and regain my loyalty. The inventor of the integrated circuit, who passed away recently, was a new employee without a title when he came up with that world-changing idea. And chances are good that an unhappy customer will not talk to a C-level manager; she will talk to a service rep in a call center who can regain or lose her loyalty

It doesn’t take a title to improve an outcome for a colleague, vendor or customer. It doesn’t take a title to improve the customer’s experience or make the delivery of a product or service better.

Leadership Lesson

The challenge for any titled leader is this: how do we encourage and teach NTL’s to lead when appropriate?

I suggested several things to the HR professionals in San Diego. First, don’t reserve leadership training and development only for managers and titled leaders. Your future titled-leaders are NTL’s today, and whether or not they ever move into management, they are impacting your organization’s success each day. Recognize that leadership happens at all levels and adjust focus and resources accordingly.

Second, imbed leadership development into your existing training modules. Whether teaching call center technique or workplace safety, include a piece of what leadership is (positive influence) and when and how to lead (improve ROI).

Third, watch for examples of NTL’s doing good things and share those stories with everyone. Story is a leader’s most powerful tool. Better than simply suggesting how to lead without a title is telling a good story about someone who already is.

Since I am deep into writing my next book, I’m thinking a great deal about non-titled leaders today. And I am increasingly convinced that we have unintentionally ignored the periodic, small and yet significant acts of leadership that happen at every level in every organization each day. Perhaps this lack of recognition and reinforcement is one reason why many employees are simply no longer engaged.
Give your NTLs a chance to making meaning as well as money.”

Take the survey for the most influential historical NTLs at the following link

Check out Mark’s site, and his book the “Fred Factor”.

/rj3b out

Here is a well written article by Steve Warman on ninetyandnine.com, Influence: It’s Our Turn to Step Up.

Here is a excerpt from the article…

“Jesus also taught us that we are salt and light:

“Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid” (Matthew 5:13-14).

This speaks to me of influence. God’s intention for us was not that we be hidden in a corner, but to change the dynamics of our society. If we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world, then our purpose on earth is to exercise influence in every area of life.”

Check the whole article out.

/rj3b out

Here is quote from a book I am reading right now, “Got Game”, by John C Beck and Mitchell Wade.

“Organizations are so thin, customers are so unpredictable that the old control mechanisms simply won’t work. Fear is not enough. Greed is not enough. Linear, command-and-control systems with formal measurement and incentives are not enough. Every business needs fully engaged, internally motivated employees. You need their best efforts, their creativity, their judgement. You need their ability to go outside their comfort zones and solve problems, all the while understanding how the problem and the solution fit into the organization’s ultimate goals….

…Smart, focused employees aren’t all you need, but in this flexible and fast-moving economy, you cannot win without them. That fact brings us to the part no one knows - news that is extremely good for boomers and gamers alike: All that experience with video games has made these people passionate about adding value.”

I just recently overheard a couple of people talking about problems with today’s generation. They were talking about problems that those two organizations are having with today’s gen. They were saying they were having real problems, and it had all to do with the people of this new generation. I thought to myself, is it really “problems” with today’s generation, or is that they are trying to use leadership. and control mechanisms that worked for boomers but is not working with today’s gen. Is that the boomer generation just is “misunderstanding” what Got Game calls the Gamer Generation. Very interesting read. Check the book out, especially if you are a leader.

/rj3b out!

I have been reading a series on Breathe Fire, called “The Chronicles of Maximilian”. This is a series that takes you through the situation that Steve Watson and his wife Deana have went through with their son Max’s medical conditions.

Reading these posts, and rethinking the situations in the past that my wife and I have went through especially with my wifes medical condition (Type 1 Diabetic), posts such as these strengthen.

Please head on over and read the posts….drop Steve a note, and pray for Steve, Deana and Max!

/rj3b out

Finished the book by Bob Briner, Roaring Lambs, excellant book, and I highly recommend it. Briner makes some excellant points about Christians and society. He describes how Christians have created, Christian Ghettos, or as I have called them in previous posts, Bomb Shelters. Some of the things Briner mentioned really gets you thinking, even though it was written sometime ago. I am going to post more on the book over time, There are many teachable items in this book that I want to bring to the Sr. High Class as well. In short, Briner talks about different areas of culture that are deemed unfit for Christians to be. Briner says the main reason areas such as the Arts are like this is because the salt and the light is absent. Interesting thoughts, so I just ordered his follow-on book to Roaring Lambs, titled Final Roar. Check Roaring Lambs out if you have not already read it, especially if you teach students or adults.

/rj3b out

A couple of items in relation to the previous posts on “People Need Answers”

People Need Answers
People Need Answers cont….

The young person that I taught a Bible Study to a few months ago was out to class again on Sunday morning. We had a class which was a discussion on the topic, “Why God?” In the discussion we were talking about one of the questions, which was about if we had one question what would we ask Jesus Christ? The class discussion was a difficult one to be honest. After class in talking with this young person our discussion is what I was talking about in these previous posts.

This young man has questions, he wants to be able to explore the questions he has and find out the answers, before making further decisions. With his background and family situation, he has things he would like to ask, to sort out. He is seeking for sure. In talking with him, I dropped him my email address and let him know that he can send me a questions anytime and we can discuss. As it is hard to meet up with him when he does not come to church as he lives out of town. But with email we can communicate whenever the questions arise.

We need to give people the room and space to explore, to ask questions, to seek after Christ. We need to be there to help them in their journey.

Sometimes, we can get frustrated because we think people should “just get it”, but we need to allow them to seek after the Spirit, to allow the Spirit to draw them. This is what is happening with this young man. I know, because in discussing things with him during the Bible Study we have similar backgrounds, similar family situations when coming, exploring the faith etc.

Mittleburg says, “Today people require more than to merely have the gospel declared to them. They also need to have it defined and defended. They don’t merely need to decide whether to follow Christ — they need to know who Christ is and what it means to follow him.”

Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ”.

I remember talking with someone that is close to this young person that also attends our church, and let them know that Christ is working on them, but do not try to force them to change overnight, allow them to seek, they are on a journey, and that journey is leading him to Christ. He received the Holy Ghost already, and soon he will down in the water, I believe it!

/rj3b out

To continue the post on Value #4 - People Need Answers

When we begin or continue to reach into the culture/society around us, to those that are not yet believers, and even those that are belivers, we are going to be confronted with questions. Now there are those that may not think that believers should have questions on faith, and that they should just pray more and have stronger faith.

For those that have these questions, believers and non-believers, I do not think we can just push it aside and give pat Christian answers. I know that in our Youth Cell Groups, there are times that our leaders are confronted with various questions by those that come to the meeting but yet do not believe. Now the leader can just give a pat answer to them, and try to continue, but are they really meeting the need at that moment. Maybe, the leader does not know how to answer, but they still shouldn’t give Christianology answers, but rather should acknowledge the question, and if need be say they will get back to them on it. Then that leader needs to talk with their Cell Coach about it, and really bring the answer back to the group when the answer is found out.

Mittleburg brings a quote from “Building a Contagious Church” on page 44, “The late Walter Martin, author of The Kingdom of the Cults and an early pioneer in reaching people in aberrant religious groups with the gospel, once said during a radio program, “When we fail to answer someone’s questions and objections, we become just one more excuse for them to disbelieve,”

We are dealing with a culture today, that shows up in our churches, in our small groups, in our schools, work places, neighbourhoods, on our blogs that has moved, drifted further and further from a worldview that is Christian. A culture that needs to have a clear response to their questions and/or objections.

As Mittleburg says, on page 45, “We are not trying to substitute answers for the gospel. We’re simply trying to ‘give an answer to everyone who asks [us] to give the reason for the hope that [we] have’ (I Peter 3:15). We do this to clear the way for people to get back to the central message of the cross of Christ. This is where the real power lies - the ‘power of God for salvation of everyone who believes’ (Romans 1:16)

Does this means everyone that comes through the door of the church or enters into a Bible Study or a cell group has these types of questions, no it doesn’t. But that being said, when we do encounter someone that does, we need to meet the need.

Let us continue to reach into the culture, and lead people to Jesus Christ….for the kingdom!

/rj3b out

Alex McManus for the past two days has been hosting an online conversation about iMosiac. Alex sent an invite so I joined the conversation, and it was incredible, it was hosted on the International Mentoring Network.

Alex would post some threads, and then the discussion around those threads would begin. Some interesting concepts presented, discussed around iMosaic.

Of interest was how people see using their blogs to create communities online, people would post on what they thought could be accomplished in the blogsphere. As the conversations were closing, the statement that the conversation would continue on the blogs of those that participated is so true.

One of the interesting things that was posted, I think by Alex, was a concept that we are all familar with and that was evangelist. In most cases people in the church understand that term, and we have a concept of a visiting minister that comes and goes and preaches a message. We have evangelists that are for children, men, woman, youth, and even dramatists (Howie Tiller). Alex used the term in a way I have thought about before, and that is web evangelist but he took it a step further and called those in the blogsphere web evangelists, the term web evangelist would “blogger”. I term that those in the blogsphere are very familar with. Interesting. I think that is an important evangelist for this generation, and a wireless, connected, online, XBOX Live, iPod, MP3, gamer, GenY, GenNext, NextGen, GenX, generation, Blogger.

/rj3b out

I will start by saying this post is going to be some thoughts I had this week about the how the election process is done for the new leaders that will lead the Youth District in the future.

I am not sure when all the new voting will be done, when the terms of the current elected officials will be done etc. Also, I am on the outside looking in, I do not have a vote in the process. I may not even know all the official rules of the voting process. These are some thoughts on how I think the process could be more benficial and effective for the young people.

Currently, my understanding is that at the district level, there are nominations that are put forward for a open office during the annual business session, and then the ministers in the district will vote for who should get the position.

How, why did I start thinking about this. Well, in the last few years there have been a few things I have noticed in the district that I think is a result of the “system”, or “network” that is part of this process. From my outside prespective, it seems that you got to be connected on the “in” of the network to get president, or secretary positions etc.

I think the proces can be improved with some of the following items, again this is not a formalized plan, and there may be gaps, and things that could be tweaked and tuned to make it even better.

a. Have a process where the young people that are members of the local church participate in the voting process. Age 18 - 30 years of age.
b. Have a nomination process that occurs outside of the distrinct conference. Have each nominee uses podcasts, websites, blogs between Winter Youth in February til the Spring Convention in May is “campaign”. Connect with the young people!
c. Have the distrinct board approve the nominations.
d. During Youth Convention have each nominee speak to the young people on their vision for the young people etc for 30 minutes. Letting the young people know how “connected” they are to that generation.
e. Have a process that will allow the young people that are members vote with approvals form the local pastor (a way to control the voting process?).

Why?

One of the things I have noticed is that there are leaders out there, that are getting passed over that would make more effective leaders of this generation. I think some of those reasons is religious politics. There are leaders that are in positions that appear to be there for nothing more to feed themselves. Some of these leaders are no longer connected to the generation in which they lead, yet there are those that are being passed over that are truly connected to this generation, have successfully led this generation, that understand the makeup/dynamics of this generation.

During our recent convention it was evident when there were some leaders that were speaking about the youth generation of today, yet totally misrepresented the generation. This is a breakdown. The process needs refining. There are ways to do it. There are ways to connect and understand and lead a generation that is not like the previous generations.

But that is me just thinking out in the blogsphere.

/rj3b out

Well I finally completed my conversion to a 3 column blogger template. Most, if not all, of the free Blogger templates are 2 columns. I wanted to get the 3-col template on my blog to post more books and CDs. I found a nice looking template that I liked for Moveable Type, and had to modify it. With my limited CSS ability, I think I managed to get it to work. Time will tell, let me know if you are having problems viewing things.

I am in the process of developing a logo for my blog as well. Might attempt it on my own, or get someone with some graphic creation ability to do the job. I will likely attempt things myself first.

I had some thoughts to post tonight, but it is late, and it may take some time to get things posted, so I will post tomorrow on some thoughts about distrinct youth elections. I do not have a vote in the process, but I have a thought or two about it.

/rj3b out

The next value that Mark Mittleburg writes about in “Building A Contagious Church”, Value #4 - People Need Answers.

This one may not be as popular as the other values. Some people may question some of the ideas Mittleburg presents in this Value #4. I have heard sermons before that would question this value, and other Christians disagree with the things Mittleburg talks about here.

Why do I say that. Mittleburg says, “Today people require more than to merely have the gospel declared to them. They also need to have it defined and defended. They don’t merely need to decide whether to follow Christ — they need to know who Christ is and what it means to follow him.”

I have mentioned in some of my previous posts, and also taught on this in the Sr. High Class this past Sunday, that people raise different thoughts and ideas when faith is mentioned. They do not don’t believe that God exists or question what we are presenting as the truth. With so many different faiths not only overseas, but right next door, they question if there is only one path to God. They may be going through a difficult struggle in life, and say, “if there is a God why do I suffer with this disease.” They may not believe in the Bible, that it is God’s Word, some Christians get stumped right there, because they really can’t just quote the same scriptures, because the person may just respond, “But I do not believe the book you are reading is of any value, it is fake.” Or other responses.

Mittleburg calls these , intellectual roadblocks. These are questions that people have (not just the ones from above there are many more) that stop, hinder, block people from believing, from taking steps forward in their spiritual adventure.

Some people I think do not understand this value completely, when they see someone on the street, or walk into the church, they pounce on them, and do not allow them time to “breathe”, to experience God. When talking with someone in a coffee shop, and questions like these arise, some people will not understand that these are real roadblocks and even how to work with them. What we have to do is address their questions and issues and show them that these questions can be answered. That our faith is not weak, but rather is built on a foundation of truth and can be trusted.

Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ”.

Well it is getting late, and I am going to end with that scripture, I will continue this post again.

/rj3b out

Continuing the post that I have posted on twice before..from Mark Mittleburg’s book, Building a Contagious Church.

Value #3 - People Need Christ

Value #3 - People Need Christ Cont…

I left off by using the term “secularization”, that Mittleburg’s brings up. What does he mean by secularization of culture?

Well this is what he says, “People in our culture have gradually taken steps away from Christian beliefs, values, and morals. So when we say, ‘God cares about you and wants to forgive you and give you eternal life,’ many will respond, ‘Oh yeah? Which God? There are so many options in the smorgasbord of deities these days. And what have I done that is so bad that I need forgiveness? I’m no muderer! And why should I look to your God for eternal life when he, she or it can’t even take care of all the starving children in the world who may or may not make it through this life?”
(pg 41)

He goes on to talk about how Christians are viewed and looked at, when they stand up for a moral values today. This has happened recently in Canada and the Globe and Mail and Christians entering into politics and becoming part of the Conservative Party. The Globe and Mail says this is Christians trying to hijack the party for a right wing agenda. Society views our values as old-school.

This all has happened in countries that were based on Christians principles values and principles. Secular, post-modern, post-Christian. Doesn’t really matter what title is put on it, the way society is has changed from years ago. There has been a shift. The question becomes how does the church reach into society today because, “People Need Christ”, and pull them out of the darkness into the marvelous light.

I am currently reading a book by the late Bob Biner called “Roaring Lambs”, he has some interesting points and views in this book. This is an older book, but a book that calls for action on the part of the church, not running for shelter in our bomb shelter churches. Hey, I have posted on that before.

/rj3b out

It starts here with this article posted on ninetyandnine.com

Where are the Apostolics? On the Dearth of Apostolic Web Ministries - A 90&9 Web Panel

This is something that I have great interest in, especially now more in the blogsphere. Here are a couple of posts where I done before on AP’s and the blogsphere.

Apostolic/Pentecostal Blogs Search
Apostolic Bloggers Update
Couple of Updates

I am going to take a shot at the questions that were posted on ninetyandnine.com below.

90&9: Tell us about your web ministry/technical background.

I have a technical background in Technical Architecture, Security Compliance and System Administration. In my career I have not done a lot of programming, this has hampered me somewhat, but I felt a lack of exposure on the Internet was a gap that my local church needed to close. I am located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, which is know as Silicon Valley North. Our field has lots of professional technical people, and we needed to “get onto” the Internet. I approached our Pastor, and he gave me the green light to go ahead and build the church website. Currently our site is www,ottawachurch.ca . I have recently turned this over to another person in our church, as I have limited programming ability. I felt someone that had more programming experience could build/maintain the site better.

90&9: What does your ministry / the ministries you work with do and how does it use the web to reach others?

Another venture that our church went onto the web with, was a ministry that was developed out of our Youth Ministry, which I am involved in as a leader. Real Teens, Real Trials, is a website for teens, there is an opportunity to send questions in, have them answered etc. This is where we have linked to three blogs as well, our Associate Pastor’s - RT2Blog, effeyk, and my own.

90&9: What does the web offer ministries that other mediums do not?

The ability to connect to people other then on Sunday’s. The ability to connect to people in other parts of the world. I have people that have read my blog in Florida, Texas, British Columbia, Alabama, etc. And I haven’t left the confines of my home to do so. I read on one blog where the individual runs a Mentoring ministry, it is an International ministry, and he stated that he runs it from his dining room table. Runs it, and connects with people on the Frontline over the Internet.

90&9: Why are there so few Apostolic web ministries today?

Lack of knowledge, lack of skill
Not a glamor ministry, not under the bright lights.
Not promoted as a potential ministry
Fear of the Internet

90&9: Can a church host a successful web ministry or should they be happy with a ‘placeholder” site that only offers basic information?

I think they can be successful, but the church really needs to find their target audience, understand how to reach that audience, and build the website/ministry accordingly. I do not think we need to be happy with placeholder sites. For the blogsphere, I would think this allows for the ability to add additional elements to the site/ministry, such as was done with 99. For instance, RT2Blog, is one of the only ministers in the UPC that I know of that has a blog. Take a look at this one, from a Presbyterian - Tod Bolsinger - It Takes A Church

Here is a post that he does on ministers, blogs. Interesting.

90&9: What would it take for more Apostolics to catch the web ministry vision?

More promotion from the leaders in the church. I have promoted blogs in the church and so has our Associate Pastor. He taught a session to Youth Leaders in our section called “Reaching the MP3 Generation”, where he touched on this subject. More of this needs to be done. (Soon to be available on this and other blogs as a podcast, once I figure it out!)

90&9: To your mind, what percentage of current Apostolic web ministries are “by Apostolics for Apostolics” with little entry for non-Apostolics / believers? Would you define that as a successful ministry?

95% percent. Success? If that is their target audience, than sure. But, we do need to have more of the other, with entry for non-Apostolics / believers.

90&9: What would you advise someone contemplating a web ministry to do to be successful?

I would today, have to ask them what are they trying to accomplish, who are they trying to reach/connect with? I would also promote entry into the blogsphere. Advise them to make it look “good”, if it looks bad, people with not return. Do not be offensive.

Those are my thoughts late at night….enjoyed the questions, thanks ninetyandnine.com!

/rj3b out

Writing this post from my parent’s house in Gananoque, Ontario on Friday night, the Internet service has been down all night, so this posting may appear sometime over the weekend.

I had started this post last week before leaving for Youth Convention - May 19th, 2005. Again to those that have not read the previous posts, I have been posting on some of the Evangelistic Values in “Building a Contagious Church” by Mark Mittelburg. These posts are taken from Mittelburg’s book, sometimes quoting directly, sometimes rewording for posting on this blog, sometimes adding words of my own thoughts etc…..

To continue what Mittelburg says is that the first three values are not new to Christians, they have been around for two thousand years, taught in different ways. It was important to review them, in order to move into the more heartfelt values.

From Page 40, “Building a Contagious Church”

“It is also important to point out that the picture is not yet complete for reaching people in our secular culture. A few decades ago, this may have been enough, at least in the United States, because reality was pretty much the way it looks in the diagram (people separated from Christ by a pit, with the Cross bridging the gap). The vast majority of people in American society lived up close to the chasm and had at least some understanding that they were sinners who had rebelled against God and needed his foregiveness. They had memories, even if distant and fading, of Sunday School classes, Bible stories, and lessons about Jesus dying on the cross. Most people shared sort of a collective church consciousness. They may not have acted on what they knew, but they problably felt at times like they should.”

Based on how culture was a few decades ago, this meant that evangelism could be hard hitting, and very direct in its approach. Since people already knew much about Christ, this task was simply to remind them about what they knew. Event style evangelism was the method to use, to try to help people get off the fence and choose to follow after Christ. What people needed was a method to get understanding on the problem of sin and make a decision to follow after Christ, and the need for a Savior. Having a large event gathering was the way to go.

There is a problem though, culture. people have moved. Like it or not, culture is not where it was decades ago. People do live close to the edge and can see their sins as those in the past could. They do not even understand how deep their sins actually penetrate their lives. Culture today does not realize how far away God actually is from them , or even how to cross over to him. Mittelburg says, “In fact, many are so far back that, from their perspective, there doesn’t appear to be a chasm at all. Like hikers in the mountains who are walking toward the towering peak, it looks like getting to the destination will be an easy stroll. They severely underestimate the distance, the valleys, and the obstacles.”

The term that Mittelburg uses here to describe this is “secularization” to be cont…..

/rj3b out

This post is from Alex McManus’ comments…..just had to paste it here…..good stufff…comments by Breathe Fire.

“There was an advertisement for Mac computers several years ago. I love it because it suits me and have always kept a copy of the text close at hand. I’ve heard it called two different titles, “To the crazy ones” and “Think Different”.

If you’d like to see the original video of this, I found a copy here Think Different Movie“

/rj3b out

There is a good post over at RT2Blog on the Hidden Dangers of sin.

Hidden Dangers

I remember the Friday night before he went to the hospital, the difficulty he was having with the eye. He had me look into the his bad eye to see if I could notice anything. To me it looked fine, maybe a little red and puffy, thought that might be from rubbing it.

Sometimes when we have that hidden sin, those that we are hanging with may not be able to let us know, they may think everything is fine. Maybe, those around us, notice something is wrong, and let us know that things are not right. However, no matter, the hidden sin needs to be dealt with and removed correctly.

/rj3b out